Years ago Inman News columnist Illyce Glink had a very entertaining column .... bath or shower?

Or was the question Tub or Shower? I believe the discussion started with a question from older homeowners who wanted to take out a bath tub in their home and replace it with a shower. The question was would removing the bath tub ruin the value of the home? Should the owners crawl over the side of a tub each day to preserve the real estate value or have a convenient walk in shower installed? A question about value of real estate, of the value of bathroom fixtures turned into a question of do you take a bath or shower?

or maybe not that personal... do you prefer a bath or a shower?

You gotta love the comment from a Texas appraiser with the sentence:

Baths are fine as a method of getting cleaner than before, but you are seated in water that is polluted by skin flakes, dirt, deodorant, .makeup and whatever. After stepping out of the bath and toweling off, some pollutants remain all over your body."

Ick...it's all over your body? I don't know why but I was thinking of the Texas appraiser as a man... until I saw "makeup and whatever" Of course I could still picture the TX appraiser as a man. It's just more twisted and funny that way.

Tub Vs. Shower - more from a real estate appraiser

"Showers pound the body with clean water that immediately runs off down the drain carrying what ever can be loosened. Thus, after toweling off you are cleaner."

OK! There is the value of taking a shower from a real estate appraiser.

I would have thought the real estate appraiser would have sunk his or her teeth into the real estate value question more, but appraisers are only human.

Tub or Shower - a practical matter

Where will you wash your dog if there is not bath tub in the house? Where will you wash the children if there is not a bath tub in in the house? No dog or kids? You won't miss it but will the next owner? Will your home have the same value when you go to sell it if it is a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath home with no bath tub? Both of the full baths have a shower rather than a tub. I believe that was the dilemna of the original older home owner.

About the same time Trulia.com (a national search site) put out a trend report. The average home listed in Columbus (listed on their site, not all real estate brokers were or are syndicating their content to Trulia.com) had 2.9 bedrooms and 1.8 baths. That's averaging! Trulia.com's 2.9 bedrooms and 1.8 baths tickled me.

Truly a 1.8 bath home?

One bath with a tub (or shower), sink and toilet. The .8 bath would be???

Information is deemed to be accurate but should be verified to your satisfaction. Information provided herein is supplied by several sources and is subject to change without notice. Opinions expressed are solely those of Maureen McCabe.